Syria death toll tops 170 amid crackdown

SYRIA

Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Zeina Karam, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, April 9, 2011

(04-10) 04:00 PDT Beirut - --

Syrian security forces fired on mourners at a funeral for protesters Saturday as authorities vowed to crush any new unrest from a three-week uprising that showed no sign of letting up even as the death toll topped 170.

Activists vowed to accelerate their movement with daily protests nationwide, bringing pressure on President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime. Assad has answered the tens of thousands of protesters with both force and limited concessions that have failed to appease an emboldened movement inspired by the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

"Old-style crackdowns and techniques simply do not work anymore," said Aktham Nuaisse, a prominent Syrian pro-democracy activist. "The first thing authorities must do is stop this violence and enact serious reforms. Failing that, I fear everyone is going to lose control of the situation."

Protests erupted in Syria three weeks ago and have been growing steadily every week - and have even rattled the key port city of Latakia in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad and the ruling elite belong. Early Saturday, security forces fired live ammunition to disperse hundreds of protesters in Latakia, witnesses said.

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Friday marked what appeared to be the largest and most widespread gatherings so far with demonstrations across the nation demanding sweeping reforms - and it brought the single bloodiest day of the uprising, with 37 killed around the country. Most of the deaths were in Daraa, an impoverished city near the Jordanian border that has become the epicenter of the protest movement.

Qurabi, who lives in exile in Egypt, said his group's information came from residents and witnesses in the city.

Further details on the shooting were not immediately available. Telephone calls to Daraa were not going through, and the Syrian government has placed severe restrictions on media coverage in the country.

A resident reached via Skype in the evening said heavy bursts of gunfire from assault rifles and machine guns were heard after dark. He said he had no way to verify whether there were casualties. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the authorities.

The editor-in-chief of the state-run Tishrin newspaper was fired Saturday after giving an interview to Al-Jazeera satellite station in which she held security forces responsible for Friday's violence in Daraa.

A key demand of protesters is an end to a decades-old emergency law that gives the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge.

The government blames the violence on armed gangs rather than true reform-seekers and has vowed to crush further unrest, raising the risks of more bloodshed. Syria's Interior Ministry said Saturday it will not tolerate "the intentional mixing between peaceful protests and sabotage and sowing sectarian strife."